Stabilized system for handling small submarines



1 United States Patent [1 13,536,023

[72] Inventors Robert A. Toher, Groton, and [56] R feren e Cit d g z3mm, New London, UNITED STATES PATENTS can cut 2,398,274 4/1946 Albert114/435 [211 P 762326 3,294,051 12/1966 Khelstovsky 1 l4/0.5(D)UX [22]Filed Sept. 16, 1968 3,293,867 12/1966 Dean 175/7 [451 Patented (27,19703 465 531 9/1969 Burrus 61/46 [73] Assignee General Dynamics CorporationNe Yo k, N Y k Primary Examiner-Trygve M. Blix a corporation of DelawareAttorney-William C. Everett i ABSTRACT: In the particular embodiment ofthe invention described herein, a system for handling small submarinesincludes a buoyant platform through which winch cables pass to largecounterweights. The winch cables are connected at their [54] :gm FORHANDLING SMAL upper ends to a recovery ship and a motor, which raisesand 7 Cl 4m m lowers the platform. Snubber links, secured to thecounterawmg weights and to the platform, restrict the vertical movementof [52] US. Cl. 114/43.5 the platform and prevent the latter from risingto the surface. [51] Int. Cl B63b 35/44 Navigation aids and arestraining mechanism, carried by the [50] Field of Search 114/05,platform, aid the submarine in locating the platform. and

secure it thereto, respectively.

Patented Oct. 27, 1970 3,536,023

IVVEN'TORS ROBERT A. TOHER 8 CLIFFORD W. BASCOM then 7' ATTORNEYSPatented Oct. 27, 1970 Sheet S E 21% S 3 @v 5 :\\\m

N St MM A 8 mfg N mm 5%; i; i on Patented Oct. 27, 1970 Sheet INVENTORSl/lI/I/II/I/III/III/IIIIIIIII/IIII 4 v 5 8M w V m E M J? 0 H B T m T .wA n mm R U m Y B STABILIZED SYSTEM FOR HANDLING SMALL SUBMARINFSBACKGROUND or THE INVENTION In the past, small submarines were primarilyresearch tools utilized by oceanographers, marine biologists and otherscientists carrying out investigations under the sea. Today, these craftare becoming more widely used by others as work boats in operations suchas underwater survey work on cables, pipe lines, and oil drillingplatforms. With the increased use of these craft, it has become moreimportant to provide a safe and efficient system of launch and recoverythat minimizes the effect of weather on these operations.

Heretofore, there have been two basic systems of launch and retrievalfor small submarines, the crane and the platform. The crane systemutilizes a winch, carried by the support ship, to raise and lowercables, which are attached to supports located on the top of thesubmarine. The platform system utilizes winches to raise and lower aplatform or cradle, which engages the underneath portion of thesubmarine, and is secured thereto.

Both of these systems, at present, require the assistance of swimmers toattach the cable or the cradle to the craft. In rough weather, theswimmers are exposed to the danger of being crushed due to the relativemotion between the support ship and the submarine. During bad weatherand even during forecasts of bad weather, therefore, small submarinescannot be used because of this inherent danger, and this is quite costlybecause it requires the maintenance of both the support ship and crewduring essentially idle time.

In addition to the economic hardship set forth above, the inability torecover the submarine creates problems of safety to its crew. Delays inrecovering the craft and mating to a decompression chamber could be amatter of life and death to an injured diver. This problem becomes moreacute as the duration of diving missions becomes longer. Ships launchedin relatively good weather could return with an injured diver in badweather and a delay in recovery could be fatal to the diver.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention overcomes these problemsby providing a submarine launch and retrieval system including acounterweight arrangement connected to a surface vessel by cables anddisposed below a platform having guides through which the cables pass.Preferably, the platform is linked to the counterweight arrangement byadditional cables.

More specifically, this invention comprises a platform carried by thesurface ship, a carriage for moving the platform horizontally from thedeck of the ship and a hoisting arrangement for raising and lowering theplatform and its counterweights below the surface of the water. Theplatform is preferably slightly buoyant and is restrained from rising tothe surface by a linkage to the counterweights such as snubbing lines,which extend from the counterweights to self-winding reels carried bythe platform. In a particular embodiment of the invention, the platformalso includes guidance devices to enable the submarine to locate itunderwater and preferably has a retaining device securing the submarinethereto. In addition, there may be a suitable cable tension controldevice that reduces the transmission of shocks from the vessel to theplatform.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS For a better understanding of theinvention, reference may be made to the following description of anexemplary embodiment, taken in conjunction with the FIGS. of theaccompanying drawings, in which: a

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a representative support ship andrecovery system according to the invention, showing a FIG. 3 is anenlarged perspective of the recovery platform used in the system ofFIGS. 1 and 2 with parts omitted for the sake of clarity; and FIG. 4 isan enlarged, cross-sectional view of a cable tension control device forthe system of FIGS. 1 and 2.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring more specifically toFIGS. 1 and 2, a surface support ship 12 has four support colunms 14that carry, at their upper ends, two support girders 16 extendingparallel to the longitudinal axis of the ship a substantial distancerearward of the stern of the ship 12. The girders 16 are connected attheir ends by transverse beams 18 and a brace member 26, carrying struts28, extends from the lowermost portion of each aft support column to therearward end of each girder 16. The girders 16 are channel-shapedmembers and are mounted with their open sides facing the sides of thesupport ship 12 to form a trackway 17 extending along the entire lengthof the support frame.

Carried on top of the support girders 16 and in sliding relationtherewith are two channel-shaped carriage beams 22 having their opensides facing outwardly from the longitudinal small submarine approachingthe platform for retrieval; FIG. 2

is a side view of the support ship and recovery system of FIG. I

axis of the support ship. At its forward end each carriage beam 22 hasconnected thereto a transverse beam 23 to prevent lateral movementthereof.

On the top flange of the carriage beams 22 and spaced at each endthereof are four mounting brackets 30 that support the recovery andlaunching apparatus. Each mounting bracket comprises a base 31 and twoinwardly extending fingers 32 between which a sheave 34 is rotatablycarried. Each base 31 carries an electric motor 35 which is operativelyconnected to the sheave in any well-known manner. In this embodiment,the sheaves 34 are driven by belts 39 carried by the shaft of the motor.

The lower flanges of the carriage beams 22 carry a plurality of L-shapedmounting brackets 36. One leg of each bracket is attached to the lowerflange and the other leg extends downwardly in proximity to the trackwayl7. Rollers 37 are rotatively carried by the proximal leg of themounting brackets 36 and ride in the trackway 17 of the support girders16. This arrangement allows for sliding movement of the carriage alongthe girders, so that a platform 40 for receiving a small submarine canmove from a retracted position over the deck of the ship 12 to anextended position over the water at the ends of the girders 16.

A suitable drive system is operatively connected to the carriage foreffecting this movement and includes a rack member 20 carried along theinside of each support girder 16 with the rack teeth facing upwardly. Todrive the carriage. the transverse beam 23 carries an L-shaped bracket21 in a position above and adjacent to each rack 20 and each bracket 2carries an electric motor 24, the shaft of which extends outwardly andabove the racks 20. Each shaft has a pinion gear 25 fixedly mountedthereon so that the teeth of the pinions 25 mesh with the teeth of theracks 20. I

A cable 38 extends downwardly from each of the sheaves 34 and slidablythrough corresponding guides 54 on the platform 40. At their lower endsthe cables are attached to two counterweights 42, extending parallel tothe longitudinal axis of the ship, two cables being attached to eachcounterweight. These counterweights 42 serve to tension the cables 38and to stabilize the platform 40.

As pointed out previously, the platform 40 is slidably guided on thecables 38 by the four guides 54 and can therefore move relative to thecounterweights 42. On the deck of the platform 40 there are two tanks58, only one of which is shown in FIG. 3, and these tanks are filledwith air in order to provide a slightly buoyant platform. The platform40, therefore, is essentially decoupled from the support ship, when itis posiby movement of the ship caused by wave action.

In order to restrain the platform 40 and prevent it from rising to thesurface of the water, it is connected to the counterweights 42 by fourlight snubber lines 46. One snubber line 46 is connected near each endof the two counterweights 42 and extends to one of a plurality ofself-winding reels 44 carried on the sides of the platform 40.

Mounted on the underneath side of the platfonn 40 within the guides 54are suitable shock absorbers 55 that reduce the impact of thecounterweights 42 as they are winched up and engage the bottom of theplatfonn 40. These shock absorbers may be of any well-known telescopingtype and are concentric with the cables 38, so that the latter slidetherethrough and are then connected to the counterweights 42. As thecounterweights are winched in, they engage the bottom of the shockabsorbers 55 and are pulled upwardly against the resistance of the shockabsorber spring system. Extending downwardly from the sides of theplatform 40 are four counterweight latches 56 which are snapped intoengagement with apertures 57 in the counterweights as the counterweightsmove upwardly against the spring, so as to secure the counterweightsagainst the bottom of the platform and prevent accidental disengagementtherefrom.

The top of the platform 40 carries a sonar beacon 50 and flood lights 52which serve as navigational aids for the submarine as it approaches theplatform.

The upper side of the platform 40 also carries a suitable retainingdevice for holding the small submarine on the platform. In thisembodiment, two electromagnetic plates 48 are'secured to the top of theplatform 40 and arranged to be controlled from inside the submarine 10.The advantage of this type of lock is that it is not position sensitive,that is, no matter where the submarine lands on the deck, the magnetswill be operative to hold it thereto. This feature not only obviates theneed of swimmers, but also does not require a pinpoint handling of thesubmarine in order to lock it to the platform.

As clearly shown in FIG. 3, the platform has a recessed portion 71 inits upper surface, so as to receive a dolly 72 which facilitateshandling of the submarine once it is brought aboard the support ship.This arrangement need not be used, but when it is, the sonar beacon 50and magnetic plates 48 are carried on the dolly 72. With this dollyarrangement, handling of the submarine on board the surface vessel isfacilitated and permits the surface vessel to carry a plurality ofsubmarines.

After the counterweights 42 have been secured to the platform and whilethe resultant assembly is being winched in, the platform is coupled tothe support ship and the motion of the surface of the water creates someimpact loads on the platform assembly 40 and the submarine 10. In orderto the effect of these loads, four cable-tensioning control devices areprovided that allow the support ship 10 to move without transmittinglarge forces to the platform until the platform 40 is lifted out of thewater. These devices comprise housing 60, two of which are mounted oneach of the carriage beams 22 at points directly beneath the sheave 34,and through which each of thecables 38 pass. A slack portion of eachline is held under tension by a resilient means that varies the amountof the slack in proportion to the motion of the support ship 10 so as toleave the platform unaffected.

FIG. 4 clearly illustrates a representative type of tensioning devicethat can be utilized. Since they are all the same, only one will bedescribed in detail. On the bottom wall of the housing 60, there are twoidler pulleys 62 and 64 mounted in spaced relation to each other. On theside wall of the housing, there is another idler pulley 66 extendinginwardly toward the center thereof. The cable 38 enters the housingthrough an opening in the top wall and extends downwardly around thefirst pulley 62 then changes its direction and extends upwardly andpasses over a movably supported pulley 68, changes its direction andextends downwardly around the pulley 64, thereby forming the slackportion of the cable. As it passes around the pulley 64, the cable 38again changes its direction and extends upwardly to the pulley 66 whereit again changes its direction and extends downwardly through an openingin the bottom wall. After it leaves the housing, the cable 38 passesthrough the platform 40 to the counterweight 42, as described in thepreceding portion of the specification.

The movable pulley 68 is suspended on a cable 74, the other end of whichis connected to a compression spring 72, the upper end of which is rigidto the housing. Between the movable pulley 68 and the compression spring72, the cable 74 passes over another idler pulley 70, so that itsdirection is changed from an upwardly to a downwardly one. The cable 74extends through the center of the spring 72 and its lower end isconnected to a force transmitting cup 76, which bears against the lowerend of the spring.

From the preceding description, it should be clear how thecable-tensioning device operates. As the platform and submarine arebeing winched in, the resultant assembly tensions the cable and canreceive impact loads if the support ship 10 is tossed about by thesurface wave action. When this happens, the springs 72 will becompressed and the movable pulley 68 will move downwardly, as will theslack part of the cable 38, thereby increasing the eflective length ofthe cable 38 and compensating for the increased distance between thesurface support ship 10 and the platform 40. As the support ship 10moves downwardly on the surface of the water, the compression springwill be extended, thereby pulling the movable pulley 68 upwardly andshortening the effective length of the cable 38 to compensate for thedecreased relative distance between the surface ship 10 and the platform40.

From the preceding description, the operation of the entire systemshould be clear. When it is desired to retrieve a submarine, theelectric motors 24 are actuated to drive the carriage from its storageposition to a position extending past the stern of the ship. The motors36 are then actuated to lower the support platform 40 and thecounterweights 42. When the platform 40 and the counterweights 42 extenda sufficient distance below the surface of the sea to minimize theeffect of the surface wave action, the retrieval operation can proceed.As the platform 40 and the counterweights 42 are lowered, the platform40 will ride up on the cables 38, due to the buoyancy tanks, so as to bedecoupled from the motion of the support ship 10.

The small submarine l0 approaches the platform 40 and is aided by thebeacon 50 and floodlights 52, so as to land on the platform 40, wherethe pilot actuates the magnetic lock 48 from inside the submarine andthereby secures the submarine to the surface of the platform. The motors36 areagain actuated to winch in the platform and submarine to aposition directly adjacent the deck of the support ship 10. During thiswinching in, the effect of motion between the support ship 10 and theplatform 40 is minimized due to the cable-tensioning device 60. When theplatfonn is adjacent the deck of the ship, the motors 24 are actuated tobring the carriage inboard to its storage position. It should be clearfrom the preceding description that the launching of the submarine isaccomplished by the converse of the steps described above.

While in the foregoing there has been described a preferred embodimentof the invenn'on, various modifications may become apparent to thoseskilled in the art to which this invention relates. Accordingly, allsuch modifications are included within the intended scope of theinvention.

We claim:

1. A submarine handling system comprising submergible platform means forsupporting a submarine, cable means movably guided with respect to theplatform means to a depth below the platform means, counterweight meansconnected to the cable means below the platform means, and carriagemeans mounted for horizontal movement above the platform means, theupper end of the cable in being operatively attached to the carriagemeans.

2. A submarine handling system as defined in claim I including tensioncontrol means operatively connected to the cable means to reduce thetransmittal of shocks from the carriage means to the platform means. 1

4. A submarine handling system comprising a support vessel, a buoyantplatform, a plurality of cable guides on the platform, a plurality ofcables connected to the vessel and extending through the guides,counterweight means attached to the lower ends of the cables, andsnubber means for restricting the movement of the platform with respectto the counterweight means beyond a predetermined limit, the snubbermeans being connected at one end to the counterweight means and at theother end to the platform.

5. A submarine handling system as defined in claim 4 including acarriage mounted for movement in a horizontal direction on the supportvessel.

6. A submarine handling system as defined in claim 5 including cabletension control means connected to the cables for reducing thetransmission of shocks between the support vessel and the platform.

7. A submarine handling system as defined in claim 6 wherein the cabletension control means comprises a movably supported pulley around whicha portion of a cable extends; biasing means operatively connected to thepulley for urging it to a first position, the biasing means beingoperative to move the pulley and the cable to other positions tocompensate for motion between the support vessel and the platform.

